Woman charged in Craigslist harassment case

May. 8, 2009 04:05 PMNewsday

MELVILLE, N.Y. - Suffolk County police have arrested a woman from Hauppauge, N.Y., who they say tried to harass her neighbor and possibly the neighbor's 9-year-old daughter by posting a sexually suggestive ad on Craigslist and directing nearly two dozen calls from men seeking sex to the neighbor's home phone number.

Margery Tannenbaum, 40, was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated harassment and is scheduled to be arraigned in July, said Fourth Precinct Sgt. Tim Burns, who added that Tannenbaum was trying to get revenge for a dispute between her daughter and the 9-year-old daughter of her neighbor.

"There was an underlying dispute between their two daughters," Burns said, adding that he was unaware of the nature of the spat. "Men were responding to that Craigslist ad, and when they did, it had an e-mail address to respond to - I assume just for this purpose - and they were given the phone number of this residence."

The ad, police said, was posted in the "casual encounters" section of the popular free-ad site on Feb. 10 or Feb. 11, and it read, in part "Looking for a good time?-w4m 21," using a shorthand "w4m" that suggests the ad is from a woman seeking a man.

Burns said the victim received 22 phone calls. The ad has since expired or been removed from the site.

Tannenbaum was released on $500 bail, Burns said.

She could not be reached for comment, but her attorney, Tad M. Scharfenberg of Bohemia, said the incident has been blown out of proportion.

"My view on this is it's gone way too far," he said. "She's a good woman. She's a good wife. She's really a good person. I just can't see why anyone would want to put this in the news media . . . if the interest is about the children, which it should be. We're looking forward to our day in court."

Neighbor Will Young, 60, said the family has lived on the block for several years.

"They keep to themselves," he said.

The Tannenbaums liked to ride bikes with their children up and down the street, he said.

"They are very family-oriented," he said, calling the parents "two very hardworking people."

Young said he didn't know the details of the Craigslist incident, adding: "I think there's two sides to every story. I don't know what the circumstances are."

The incident happened as Craigslist, which posts ads of all kinds, comes under fire for being a vehicle through which people have preyed upon others.

Attorneys general from states such as Illinois, Missouri and Connecticut have asked that Craigslist curb its erotic ads section in the wake of other high profile incidents in which people were killed and the fact that people use the site for prostitution.

"The erotic services section of Craigslist is nothing more than an Internet brothel," Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan told Reuters after a meeting this week with Craigslist officials. "Hopefully they will recognize the problem, and they claim to."

Craigslist did not respond to requests for comment, but CEO Jim Buckmaster wrote in a blog on the site that there are far more predatory acts committed by responders to print ads than to Craigslist.

"Now, it's horrible to think of Craigslist being used in connection with any violent crime whatsoever, let alone a murder," he wrote.